After decades of enforcing a one-child policy, China may in the future allow every couple to have two children, a senior family planning official has said.

China’s national health and family planning commission will study the impact of a universal two-child rule, its head of research, Ma Xu, told state news agency Xinhua, adding that there was no specific timetable for the decision.

Experts said it was inevitable that China would make the shift, but probably not for several years.